The first release in the "Ales from the Dark Side" series...A dark, roasted twist on the traditional IPA that uses an absurd amount of malt and is "octo-hopped" with the German Perle hop. The biggest beer in the RJ Rockers linup to date.

Is a new beer style emerging? The Black IPA, known by some as Cascadian Dark Ale, and most seem to be double in strength. Hoppy dark beers? We are down with that.

Dark and heady, not nearly pitch black but pretty damn dark, and the lacing does a great jump, staying on the glass. Minty, piney and mildly orangey hop nose runs up against a wall of toasted grain and brown bread aromas. Smooth, with a well-rounded medium body. Very light-roasted maltiness throughout; carob powder and mild roasted coffee comes to mind. Hops keep on coming back around with pungent waves of pine, citrus and herbal hop oil. Bitterness is clear in its intention and cuts through the beer quite easily, yet the malt base does not fall apart ... balance is present. Hoppy and choco- laty make for a bittersweet finish.

"New style" debate aside, this is an amazing beer--heavy on malt and hops with a whole lot of balance for the taste buds to be pleased with.

Dark brown with ruby highlights and a full inch of frothy rocky beige foam, and some particulate matter in suspension.

Low aroma of toasty malt.

Flavor starts off mild toasty malt, quickly becomes dark and roasty, with notes of sharp espresso and cocoa, some wood and leather. Maltiness is well balanced against a hop bitter made up of pine and grapefruit, some orange rind. Well-balanced beer with lots of flavor nuances, but all of them are fairly tame.

Even mouthfeel, moderate carbonation, finishes slightly tannic. Tasty, but could be more bold.

On tap at the brewery.Black and opaque with an excellent tan head. Aroma has both medium and dark roasted malts, clearly leaning to the dark side. Flavor is a way more hoppy and has notably more earthy/herbal flavor. Medium-high bitterness (IBU = 80).

Interesting brew for sure. Pours out a huge, fluffy tan head over a pitch black body; minimal lacing. Smells rich and warm - notes of bourbon, vanilla. Even a little bit of oak. Taste is bitter, mostly smoky at first. The bourbon and vanilla sweeten it, but still mostly bitter. Feels medium bodied, but still light on the tongue.

Not sure where the IPA name comes from. Didnt get any hop taste or smell, the quintessence of an IPA. I would definitely classify this as an imperial stout - boozy, malty and smoky. Still a great brew though. And a killer bottle - love the wax. Just not what I was looking for on a warm day. Cheers!

WTF??? Just peeled the wax off, and the bottle cap looks corroded and rusted, like something you'd find in a 50-year-old unopened bottle. Also worriesome is a feeble "ziss" when popping the cap. Makes me fear this cap wasn't tight and oxidation has set in.

It looks healthy enough: a light tan head, half an inch thick and super-creamy, but it thins to a bubbly skim in about a minute. It's dark indeed, a deep milk-chocolate brown.

Flavor is where Black Perle starts to weaken. There's a good bit of creamy flavor and especially feel here, but it's overtaken by total burnt popcorn char. The hops are bitter and leafy, and along with that burnt flavor, any sweetness and creaminess is severely diminished. Something metallic lingers in the finish, making it even more difficult to enjoy. Some good news is that the alcohol is well-hidden, hardly even detected. But maybe it's just that the uber-roast is so distracting. There's something really nice here, flavor-wise, but it's being oppressed.

The "Black IPA" style is an exciting one, if so new that it's hard to define just yet. But I like the idea, and I like that a fairly under-hyped, even unremarkable brewery like RJ Rockers are at least delving into such wide-open territory. They've failed to truly put their mark on the style, but it's a decent stab worth trying once. Unfortunately for them and every other brewer, Southern Tier threw their hat in the Black IPA ring with Iniquity, which will be incredibly difficult for anyone to match. Let the games begin...

Growler served in a goblet.A-Deep brown, fluffy tan head, excellent lacingS-Roasted malts, coffee and alcoholT- dark chocolate/roasted malts with a bitter taste of hop, coffeeM-creamy,medium body, moderate carb.O- Great beer, thought it was more of a bitter hopped porter than a black IPA but would get again.

Drinks fairly easy for the style & abv. A good stab at a black IPA, hops weren't perfect, but were still well done in this one. A touch pricey @ $8 a bomber, but unique enough that I shall buy it again. Exceeded by expectations & then some!

Pours black with 1 ½ fingers of mocha colored frothy head. This stays foamy and rich, leaving a big sticky latticework of lace behind. The aroma is hoppy and roasty all at once, with it being hard to pinpoint exactly which dynamic really takes full control of the nose here. The hops are floral and resinous with a big blast of citric grapefruit juice. Roast and coffee are equally big here, giving off dark and smoky textures that give this a crunchy feel in the nose. Maybe just a smidge of warmth is detectable but the strength of the flavors appear to cover it up nicely.

The hops are in full force in the taste and are loaded up with resins, spice, and an immense burst of bitter grapefruit. But man, does this get roasty and toasty underneath with a dark bitterness that has a bit of a smoky edge to it. Luckily, there is also a decent amount of sweetness present from the chocolate malts and even some from the citrus. Lingering spice and pine really add some intenseness to the finish, along with some extra notes of dark roast on the tailend. The mouthfeel is fuller bodied with a prickly feel towards the back of the swallow but for the most part, this has a big bubbly creaminess to the carbonation that helps smooth out a lot of the alocohol beef that is present. There really isn't much of an alcohol taste to this per se but just the overall thickness of this starts to wear on thee ole' palate after a full bomber of this.

Nice. Not shortage of hops or roast at all here, as this came off to me as one of the better Black IPAs that I've had recently. The higher ABV got to me after a while but it in no way stood in front of those bold flavors. It's nice to see RJ Rockers raising the bar on their offerings here.